Shroud of Despondency

Frankly, I’m surprised that I hadn’t heard much more of this stuff earlier. Back in the day when I was in my old band, we played a show up in the UP (a link, for those who don’t know) where we came in contact with a really great band (whose name I cannot remember for the life of me) which contained a very great guitarist (whose name I can remember, Rory Heikkila). Long story short, said band doesn’t exist anymore, but that guitar player has relocated from the boonies to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he currently is producing some pretty fucking amazing black metal. If you’re into depressive black metal, you should definitely check out the first full length from this project For Eternity Brings No Hope (be prepared for some pretty low-fi recording, but there’s some seriously good shit on this album, the album was sold out, but is now available via mp3 here).

Apparently, and this is the part I didn’t keep up with, Shroud of Despondency has released other things as well, most recently a split in 2005. However, there is apparently a session called Objective: Isolate, of which a few tracks are on the band’s Myspace. The tracks I recommend you go and check out are as follows: “An Opposing Shore,” “This Transcends Belief,” “A Life Well Lived,” and “My Carrion.” These tracks are fucking superb, and it’s really impressive to me how far the music has come. I strongly suggest you check it out, and I scream a “heads up” at labels that are interested in this kind of stuff. Seriously, get out the word if you dig this stuff.